Accra

10/7/11

This last week (10/2 to 10/7) I was in Accra, the capital of Ghana. This was not my first time in Accra, but the last time was the first night I landed, so I was quite jet lagged at the time and honestly barely remember it. My impressions of Accra after this last week are mixed.

The first thing we did after our three hour bus trip to Accra was visit two places. One was the National Museum and the other was Kwame Nkrumah National Park. The National Museum had many good displays, and I can tell you that after six weeks in Ghana, most of it was accurate. The museum itself was not really suitable for tour giving, and the tour that we were led on was very sporadic. Also to note, on the top floor of the museum, although the tour never went to this part, there was a bust of Marcus Aurelius and a statue from Delphi amongst other completely irrelevant items. I was confused by them, but whatever. I’m not the curator of the museum; it’s not for me to decide. Overall, the museum was good, although interesting in some regards. After the National Museum, we went to Kwame Nkrumah National Park. Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana after it achieved its independence in 1957. He ruled until 1964 when a coup overthrew him. Although he was exiled from the country, his ideas could not be removed. He was a visionary for the development of Ghana, and he did much more that you can look up later, because I simply do not care to spend the time writing all of that down. About two or three weeks ago was the 102^nd birthday of Kwame Nkrumah. Although he died in 1972, his birthday is still celebrated. Apparently Nelson Mandela came to Ghana to join the festivities, and no one told me this. I’m still kind of bitter about that. But the park was very beautiful and spacious, and I’ll put some of those pictures up in December. That was Sunday.

On Monday, we had a lecture at the University of Ghana about the traditional forms of slavery, and how the term slavery was changed upon European arrival. It was fascinating, but a bit of an overview of basic knowledge. The professor, Dr. Akosua Perbi, admitted to this ridiculousness. She said that in one hour, we would be covering everything that takes at least four full years to truly study. After that lecture, we simply spent the day exploring the campus and I also bought a few books that sounded rather interesting. That was Monday.

On Tuesday, we went back to the University of Ghana for two more lectures. One was about women’s oral culture, and that was a fascinating lecture as well. Our professor, Akosua Anyidoho, went over briefly how in Ghana, there are festive occasions that are celebrated, and what women’s roles in them were. In some instances, such as birth or puberty, only women participated in some cultures. These practices are called restricted because of their nature, and usually they are more formal. There are also unrestricted ceremonies, and they are more informal and public in nature. Then we had another lecture after this one about archaeology in Ghana. I had been looking forward to this lecture ever since I saw on our schedule that we were having one on this subject, and I wasn’t disappointed by it. Archaeology has a connotation to being mostly in the Middle East, and I was curious to see what was going to happen here. Our professor, James Anquandah, was one of the most passionate speakers I have ever heard in my life, and you wouldn’t expect it by his stature. He was in his seventies and maybe 5’5 and about 8 pounds. Yes, the weight was an exaggeration, but he was a little guy. Although this lecture was a broad overview as well, it was very enjoyable. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it was great. One thing that he talked about was the Shai Hills, which we went to the next day, but more on that later. After this lecture, we went to the W.E.B. Du Bois house in Accra. Yes, the last two years of his life were spent in Ghana, no big deal. It wasn’t very well put together as a museum though, since it was just a house that was modified into a museum. Not ideal. After that, we went to Osu to a market on Oxford Street. It’s significant to put the name out there because very few streets in Ghana have names. That sounds weird to us Western types, but that’s how it works over here. Anyway, at this market, we were absolutely bombarded by hawkers. One guy followed me around for about 30 minutes trying to sell his art, which probably wasn’t even his in the first place. That was not fun. After about 45 minutes of this, I had enough, and so did a few others in our group, so we got off of the main road and explored the outlying areas close by. It was a little adventure. That was Tuesday.

On Wednesday, as mentioned earlier, we went to the Shai Hills. The Shai Hills is an archaeological site about an hour drive north of Accra. Here was a place of prehistoric peoples who lived in the shelter of caves on the side of the hills. It was a short hike after a bumpy off-road trip to one of the caves. Before our vehicle came over to pick us up for the bumpy ride, we waited around and hung out with baboons. That’s right, I can now say that I’ve hung out with baboons. Sorry, that was off topic. After our ride and short hike, we explored a cave, which was an enclosed area of rocks with multiple exits. I thought it was great. After this, we returned to Accra.

I have to mention something at this point. On Tuesday night going into Wednesday, I started to not feel so good. So I did what any reasonable person would do. I started drinking even more water and taking ibuprofen every four hours. On the drive back, however, the ibuprofen from the morning wore off, and I felt absolutely miserable. When we got to the hostel, I laid down in bed after some more ibuprofen and slept the rest of that day. And the next day. In fact, I didn’t feel better until this morning. Apparently I looked even more pale than usual, but I’m alright now. My peers were nice enough to get me some food to eat, which I greatly appreciated, and I paid them back what I owed them. I just got a 48 hour bug and now it’s gone. But that meant I missed the last day and a half in Accra. That was Wednesday/ Thursday.

On Friday, we left at nine and got to Cape Coast by 12:30, completely exhausted from the week. That was Friday.

In light of all this, it’s hard to make any clear reflections about Accra, since I only really had three days there. But my initial reaction is this: “hmmm…”. When we came back to Accra, it felt like I left the continent of Africa. When comparing it to what I had seen in Cape Coast and Komenda, it felt like I was in a Western inspired city. There were skyscrapers, a very modern mall, a lot of lights, and so on. This was also the location of most of the imports into Ghana, so there were a lot of outside products and companies. There were plenty of Chinese restaurants everywhere, plenty of Coke, some Lebanese places, and so on. Side note: I noticed the Chinese places and the Lebanese places because that is a major focal point of my project later on. In spite of the global world’s ideas about modernity, it has affected Accra dramatically from the rest of Ghana. For example, In Ghana, it is incredibly disrespectful to use your left hand when engaged with a conversation with someone. That is because the left hand is traditionally the wiping hand before the introduction of toilet paper. Many foreigners, either tourists or business types, are completely oblivious to this protocol, and they would use their left hand without even realizing the significance of it. Because of the free use of the left hand by visitors, the people from Accra became used to it and they started using their left hands themselves. To summarize, the pull of modernization by global terms has created a loss of culture, so Ghana is losing its sense of a uniquely Ghanaian lifestyle. One could call it a cultural syncretism, although the term is mainly applied to religion. At least that is how I felt about Accra: It was modern, but not really Ghanaian compared to other parts of the country. If that is a good or bad synthesis I am not sure. After all, I only observed Accra for three days.